Bangladeshi, Female and Doubly Marginalized

On the hot trail of a new research on violence against marginalized women in Bangladesh, I met with a few individuals who are physically disabled. One of them is legally blind, and the other is bound to a wheelchair.

In the midst of discussing the forms of violence encountered by physically disabled females, I realized as females we are accustomed to many modes of violence and discrimination, whether subtle or overt, but that very violence must be further amplified for the physically disabled.

A personal account I heard from one woman is of her dismissed from her graduate programme in a reputed national university. Her discharge came about on account of her failure to show her face at the Registration Office. The Office is located on the fourth floor of the building. She is in a wheelchair. And there is no provision for physically challenged people to move in, about, and out that building.

When asked why she didn’t pursue legal action against such blatant discrimination. The woman cited her university professor encouraging her to let the matter slide.

Why?

Regardless of her facing such an outright violation of her basic human rights to education, why would a supervisor, a supposed mentor, telling her to drop the matter? How does her silent retreat into the cloak of invisibility from the public domain aid her right to have access to education?

But this is just a single case. There are multiple and diverse forms of violence faced by physically disabled females in our country. The deeper and the more rural areas one ventures into, the worse the transgressions. Disturbing as it is, one must wonder what other forms and shapes violence against them take. Are physically disabled women also prey to sexual abuse and violation? And if so, what coping strategies and legal provisions are available for them to pursue to redress their grievances?

As an eminent legal expert in our country stated once, females are already marginalized in Bangladesh, but if they happen to be ethnic, religious minority or physically disabled, they are doubly marginalized and susceptible to violence without any chances of pursuing legal actions.